Goblin+Market

=//Goblin Market,// Christina Rossetti (1862)=

Maids heard the goblins cry: "Come buy our orchard fruits, Come buy, come buy: Apples and quinces, Lemons and oranges, Plump unpecked cherries, Melons and raspberries, Bloom-down-cheeked peaches, Swart-headed mulberries, Wild free-born cranberries, Crab-apples, dewberries, Pine-apples, blackberries, Apricots, strawberries;— All ripe together In summer weather,— Morns that pass by, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Fair eves that fly; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Come buy, come buy; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Our grapes fresh from the vine, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Pomegranates full and fine, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Dates and sharp bullaces, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Rare pears and greengages, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Damsons and bilberries, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Taste them and try: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Currants and gooseberries, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Bright-fire-like barberries, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Figs to fill your mouth, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Citrons from the South, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Sweet to tongue and sound to eye, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Come buy, come buy."
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Morning and evening

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Evening by evening <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Among the brookside rushes, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Laura bowed her head to hear, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Lizzie veiled her blushes: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Crouching close together <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In the cooling weather, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">With clasping arms and cautioning lips, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">With tingling cheeks and fingertips. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Lie close," Laura said, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Pricking up her golden head: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"We must not look at goblin men, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">We must not buy their fruits: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Who knows upon what soil they fed <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Their hungry thirsty roots?" <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Come buy," call the goblins <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Hobbling down the glen. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Oh," cried Lizzie, "Laura, Laura, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">You should not peep at goblin men." <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Lizzie covered up her eyes <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Covered close lest they should look; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Laura reared her glossy head, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And whispered like the restless brook: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Look, Lizzie, look, Lizzie, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Down the glen tramp little men. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One hauls a basket, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One bears a plate, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One lugs a golden dish <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Of many pounds weight. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How fair the vine must grow <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Whose grapes are so luscious; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How warm the wind must blow <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Thro' those fruit bushes." <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"No," said Lizzie, "No, no, no; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Their offers should not charm us, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Their evil gifts would harm us." <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She thrust a dimpled finger <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In each ear, shut eyes and ran: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Curious Laura chose to linger <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Wondering at each merchant man. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One had a cat's face, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One whisked a tail, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One tramped at a rat's pace, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One crawled like a snail, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One like a wombat prowled obtuse and furry, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One like a ratel tumbled hurry scurry. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She heard a voice like voice of doves <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Cooing all together: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">They sounded kind and full of loves <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In the pleasant weather.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Laura stretched her gleaming neck <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like a rush-imbedded swan, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like a lily from the beck, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like a moonlit poplar branch, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like a vessel at the launch <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">When its last restraint is gone.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Backwards up the mossy glen <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Turned and trooped the goblin men, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">With their shrill repeated cry, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Come buy, come buy." <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">When they reached where Laura was <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">They stood stock still upon the moss, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Leering at each other, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Brother with queer brother; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Signalling each other, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Brother with sly brother. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One set his basket down, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One reared his plate; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One began to weave a crown <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Of tendrils, leaves, and rough nuts brown <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">(Men sell not such in any town); <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One heaved the golden weight <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Of dish and fruit to offer her: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Come buy, come buy," was still their cry. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Laura stared but did not stir, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Longed but had no money: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The whisk-tailed merchant bade her taste <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In tones as smooth as honey, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The cat-faced purr'd, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The rat-paced spoke a word <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Of welcome, and the snail-paced even was heard; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One parrot-voiced and jolly <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Cried "Pretty Goblin" still for "Pretty Polly;"— <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One whistled like a bird.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But sweet-tooth Laura spoke in haste: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Good folk, I have no coin; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">To take were to purloin: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I have no copper in my purse, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I have no silver either, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And all my gold is on the furze <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">That shakes in windy weather <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Above the rusty heather." <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"You have much gold upon your head," <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">They answered all together: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Buy from us with a golden curl." <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She clipped a precious golden lock, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She dropped a tear more rare than pearl, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Then sucked their fruit globes fair or red: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Sweeter than honey from the rock, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Stronger than man-rejoicing wine, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Clearer than water flowed that juice; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She never tasted such before, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How should it cloy with length of use? <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She sucked and sucked and sucked the more <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Fruits which that unknown orchard bore, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She sucked until her lips were sore; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Then flung the emptied rinds away <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But gathered up one kernel-stone, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And knew not was it night or day <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As she turned home alone.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Lizzie met her at the gate <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Full of wise upbraidings: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Dear, you should not stay so late, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Twilight is not good for maidens; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Should not loiter in the glen <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In the haunts of goblin men. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Do you not remember Jeanie, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How she met them in the moonlight, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Took their gifts both choice and many, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Ate their fruits and wore their flowers <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Plucked from bowers <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Where summer ripens at all hours? <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But ever in the moonlight <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She pined and pined away; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Sought them by night and day, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Found them no more but dwindled and grew grey; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Then fell with the first snow, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">While to this day no grass will grow <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Where she lies low: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I planted daisies there a year ago <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">That never blow. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">You should not loiter so." <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Nay, hush," said Laura: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Nay, hush, my sister: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I ate and ate my fill, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yet my mouth waters still; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Tomorrow night I will <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Buy more:" and kissed her: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Have done with sorrow; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I'll bring you plums tomorrow <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Fresh on their mother twigs, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Cherries worth getting; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">You cannot think what figs <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">My teeth have met in, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">What melons, icy-cold <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Piled on a dish of gold <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Too huge for me to hold, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">What peaches with a velvet nap, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Pellucid grapes without one seed: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Odorous indeed must be the mead <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Whereon they grow, and pure the wave they drink, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">With lilies at the brink, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And sugar-sweet their sap."

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Golden head by golden head, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like two pigeons in one nest <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Folded in each other's wings, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">They lay down in their curtained bed: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like two blossoms on one stem, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like two flakes of new-fall'n snow, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like two wands of ivory <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Tipped with gold for awful kings. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Moon and stars gazed in at them, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Wind sang to them lullaby, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Lumbering owls forbore to fly, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Not a bat flapped to and fro <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Round their rest: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Cheek to cheek and breast to breast <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Locked together in one nest.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Early in the morning <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">When the first cock crowed his warning, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Neat like bees, as sweet and busy, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Laura rose with Lizzie: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Fetched in honey, milked the cows, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Aired and set to rights the house, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Kneaded cakes of whitest wheat, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Cakes for dainty mouths to eat, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Next churned butter, whipped up cream, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Fed their poultry, sat and sewed; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Talked as modest maidens should: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Lizzie with an open heart, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Laura in an absent dream, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One content, one sick in part; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One warbling for the mere bright day's delight, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One longing for the night.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">At length slow evening came: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">They went with pitchers to the reedy brook; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Lizzie most placid in her look, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Laura most like a leaping flame. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">They drew the gurgling water from its deep; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Lizzie plucked purple and rich golden flags, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Then turning homeward said: "The sunset flushes <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Those furthest loftiest crags; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Come, Laura, not another maiden lags, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">No wilful squirrel wags, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The beasts and birds are fast asleep." <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But Laura loitered still among the rushes <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And said the bank was steep.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And said the hour was early still, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The dew not fall'n, the wind not chill: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Listening ever, but not catching <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The customary cry, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Come buy, come buy," <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">With its iterated jingle <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Of sugar-baited words: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Not for all her watching <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Once discerning even one goblin <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Racing, whisking, tumbling, hobbling; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Let alone the herds <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">That used to tramp along the glen, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In groups or single, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Of brisk fruit-merchant men. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Till Lizzie urged, "O Laura, come; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I hear the fruit-call, but I dare not look: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">You should not loiter longer at this brook: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Come with me home. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The stars rise, the moon bends her arc, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Each glowworm winks her spark, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Let us get home before the night grows dark: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">For clouds may gather even <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Tho' this is summer weather, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Put out the lights and drench us thro'; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Then if we lost our way what should we do?"

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Laura turned cold as stone <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">To find her sister heard that cry alone, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">That goblin cry, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Come buy our fruits, come buy." <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Must she then buy no more such dainty fruit? <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Must she no more such succous pasture find, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Gone deaf and blind? <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Her tree of life drooped from the root: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She said not one word in her heart's sore ache; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But peering thro' the dimness, naught discerning, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Trudged home, her pitcher dripping all the way; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">So crept to bed, and lay <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Silent till Lizzie slept; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Then sat up in a passionate yearning, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And gnashed her teeth for baulked desire, and wept <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As if her heart would break.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Day after day, night after night, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Laura kept watch in vain, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In sullen silence of exceeding pain. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She never caught again the goblin cry: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Come buy, come buy;"— <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She never spied the goblin men <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Hawking their fruits along the glen: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But when the noon waxed bright <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Her hair grew thin and gray; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She dwindled, as the fair full moon doth turn <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">To swift decay and burn <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Her fire away.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One day remembering her kernel-stone <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She set it by a wall that faced the south; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Dewed it with tears, hoped for a root, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Watched for a waxing shoot, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But there came none; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">It never saw the sun, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">It never felt the trickling moisture run: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">While with sunk eyes and faded mouth <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She dreamed of melons, as a traveller sees <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">False waves in desert drouth <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">With shade of leaf-crowned trees, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And burns the thirstier in the sandful breeze. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She no more swept the house, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Tended the fowls or cows, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Fetched honey, kneaded cakes of wheat, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Brought water from the brook: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But sat down listless in the chimney-nook <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And would not eat.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Tender Lizzie could not bear <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">To watch her sister's cankerous care <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yet not to share. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She night and morning <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Caught the goblins' cry: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Come buy our orchard fruits, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Come buy, come buy:"— <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Beside the brook, along the glen, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She heard the tramp of goblin men, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The voice and stir <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Poor Laura could not hear; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Longed to buy fruit to comfort her, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But feared to pay too dear.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She thought of Jeanie in her grave, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Who should have been a bride; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But who for joys brides hope to have <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Fell sick and died <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In her gay prime, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In earliest Winter time, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">With the first glazing rime, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">With the first snow-fall of crisp Winter time. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Till Laura dwindling <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Seemed knocking at Death's door: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Then Lizzie weighed no more <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Better and worse; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But put a silver penny in her purse, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Kissed Laura, crossed the heath with clumps of furze <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">At twilight, halted by the brook: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And for the first time in her life <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Began to listen and look.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Laughed every goblin <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">When they spied her peeping: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Came towards her hobbling, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Flying, running, leaping, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Puffing and blowing, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Chuckling, clapping, crowing, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Clucking and gobbling, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Mopping and mowing, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Full of airs and graces, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Pulling wry faces, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Demure grimaces, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Cat-like and rat-like, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Ratel and wombat-like, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Snail-paced in a hurry, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Parrot-voiced and whistler, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Helter skelter, hurry skurry, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Chattering like magpies, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Fluttering like pigeons, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Gliding like fishes,— <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Hugged her and kissed her, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Squeezed and caressed her: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Stretched up their dishes, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Panniers, and plates: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Look at our apples <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Russet and dun, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Bob at our cherries <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Bite at our peaches, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Citrons and dates, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Grapes for the asking, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Pears red with basking <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Out in the sun, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Plums on their twigs; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Pluck them and suck them, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Pomegranates, figs."—

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Good folk," said Lizzie, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Mindful of Jeanie, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Give me much and many:"— <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Held out her apron, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Tossed them her penny. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Nay, take a seat with us, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Honor and eat with us," <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">They answered grinning; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Our feast is but beginning. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Night yet is early, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Warm and dew-pearly, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Wakeful and starry: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Such fruits as these <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">No man can carry; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Half their bloom would fly, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Half their dew would dry, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Half their flavor would pass by. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Sit down and feast with us, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Be welcome guest with us, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Cheer you and rest with us."— <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Thank you," said Lizzie; "But one waits <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">At home alone for me: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">So, without further parleying, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">If you will not sell me any <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Of your fruits tho' much and many, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Give me back my silver penny <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I tossed you for a fee."— <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">They began to scratch their pates, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">No longer wagging, purring, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But visibly demurring, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Grunting and snarling. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One called her proud, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Cross-grained, uncivil; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Their tones waxed loud, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Their looks were evil. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Lashing their tails <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">They trod and hustled her, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Elbowed and jostled her, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Clawed with their nails, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Barking, mewing, hissing, mocking, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Tore her gown and soiled her stocking, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Twitched her hair out by the roots, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Stamped upon her tender feet, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Held her hands and squeezed their fruits <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Against her mouth to make her eat. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">White and golden Lizzie stood, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like a lily in a flood, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like a rock of blue-veined stone <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Lashed by tides obstreperously, -- <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like a beacon left alone <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In a hoary roaring sea, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Sending up a golden fire, -- <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like a fruit-crowned orange-tree <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">White with blossoms honey-sweet <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Sore beset by wasp and bee, -- <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like a royal virgin town <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Topped with gilded dome and spire <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Close beleaguered by a fleet <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Mad to tear her standard down.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One may lead a horse to water, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Twenty cannot make him drink. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Tho' the goblins cuffed and caught her, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Coaxed and fought her, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Bullied and besought her, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Scratched her, pinched her black as ink, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Kicked and knocked her, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Mauled and mocked her, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Lizzie uttered not a word; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Would not open lip from lip <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Lest they should cram a mouthful in: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But laughed in heart to feel the drip <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Of juice that syruped all her face, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And lodged in dimples of her chin, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And streaked her neck which quaked like curd. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">At last the evil people, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Worn out by her resistance <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Flung back her penny, kicked their fruit <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Along whichever road they took, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Not leaving root or stone or shoot. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Some writhed into the ground, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Some dived into the brook <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">With ring and ripple, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Some scudded on the gale without a sound, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Some vanished in the distance.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In a smart, ache, tingle, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Lizzie went her way; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Knew not was it night or day; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Sprang up the bank, tore through the furze, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Threaded copse and dingle, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And heard her penny jingle <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Bouncing in her purse, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Its bounce was music to her ear. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She ran and ran <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As if she feared some goblin man <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Dogged her with gibe or curse <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Or something worse: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But not one goblin skurried after, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Nor was she pricked by fear; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The kind heart made her windy-paced <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">That urged her home quite out of breath with haste <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And inward laughter.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She cried "Laura," up the garden, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Did you miss me? <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Come and kiss me. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Never mind my bruises, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Squeezed from goblin fruits for you, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Goblin pulp and goblin dew. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Eat me, drink me, love me; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Laura, make much of me: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">For your sake I have braved the glen <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And had to do with goblin merchant men."

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Laura started from her chair, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Flung her arms up in the air, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Clutched her hair: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Lizzie, Lizzie, have you tasted <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">For my sake the fruit forbidden? <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Must your light like mine be hidden, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Your young life like mine be wasted, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Undone in mine undoing, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And ruined in my ruin, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Thirsty, cankered, goblin-ridden?" <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She clung about her sister, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Kissed and kissed and kissed her: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Tears once again <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Refreshed her shrunken eyes, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Dropping like rain <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">After long sultry drouth; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Shaking with aguish fear, and pain, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She kissed and kissed her with a hungry mouth.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Her lips began to scorch, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">That juice was wormwood to her tongue, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She loathed the feast: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Writhing as one possessed she leaped and sung, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Rent all her robe, and wrung <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Her hands in lamentable haste, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And beat her breast. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Her locks streamed like the torch <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Borne by a racer at full speed, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Or like the mane of horses in their flight, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Or like an eagle when she stems the light <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Straight toward the sun, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Or like a caged thing freed, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Or like a flying flag when armies run.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Swift fire spread thro' her veins, knocked at her heart, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Met the fire smouldering there <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And overbore its lesser flame; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She gorged on bitterness without a name: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Ah! fool, to choose such part <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Of soul-consuming care! <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Sense failed in the mortal strife: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like the watch-tower of a town <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Which an earthquake shatters down, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like a lightning-stricken mast, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like a wind-uprooted tree <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Spun about, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like a foam-topped waterspout <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Cast down headlong in the sea, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She fell at last; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Pleasure past and anguish past, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Is it death or is it life ?

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Life out of death. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">That night long Lizzie watched by her, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Counted her pulse's flagging stir, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Felt for her breath, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Held water to her lips, and cooled her face <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">With tears and fanning leaves: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But when the first birds chirped about their eaves, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And early reapers plodded to the place <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Of golden sheaves, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And dew-wet grass <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Bowed in the morning winds so brisk to pass, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And new buds with new day <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Opened of cup-like lilies on the stream, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Laura awoke as from a dream, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Laughed in the innocent old way, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Hugged Lizzie but not twice or thrice; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Her gleaming locks showed not one thread of gray, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Her breath was sweet as May, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And light danced in her eyes. <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Days, weeks, months, years <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Afterwards, when both were wives <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">With children of their own; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Their mother-hearts beset with fears, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Their lives bound up in tender lives; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Laura would call the little ones <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And tell them of her early prime, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Those pleasant days long gone <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Of not-returning time: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Would talk about the haunted glen, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The wicked, quaint fruit-merchant men, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Their fruits like honey to the throat, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But poison in the blood; <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">(Men sell not such in any town:) <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Would tell them how her sister stood <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In deadly peril to do her good, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And win the fiery antidote: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Then joining hands to little hands <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Would bid them cling together, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"For there is no friend like a sister, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In calm or stormy weather, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">To cheer one on the tedious way, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">To fetch one if one goes astray, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">To lift one if one totters down, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">To strengthen whilst one stands." || http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19257 ||  ||
 * Accessed on 30th October 2011 on